Transforming Social Inequalities through Inclusive Climate Action (TSITICA)

It is now broadly recognised that multidimensional inequality – the distribution of assets, wealth, human capital – bounds and limits sustainable development and its benefits to the poor. The Transforming Social Inequalities through Inclusive Climate Action (TSITICA) project addresses the nexus of climate change, sustainable livelihoods, poverty and inequality to understand how Climate Change Actions (SDG13) can be socio-economically transformative and synergistic with the Agenda 2030 aims of eliminating poverty (SDG1), reducing inequality (SDGs 5 and 10), and providing decent work and sustainable economic growth (SDG 8).

Objectives

Working in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, TSITICA investigates the bidirectional relationships between climate action and social inequalities, so as to understand:

1. How social inequalities and political economy shape decision-making processes and climate action outcomes;
2. How specific climate actions for adaptation and mitigation of climate change impact on the livelihoods and well-being of individuals, households and communities across the income distribution and, based on the this;
3. How specific climate actions can transform social inequalities by producing livelihood co-benefits for all, especially the most vulnerable, whilst leveraging favourable outcomes for the sustainable development goals.

Impacts

The programme aims to have policy and practice impacts across multiple spheres of development and climate action, including:

1. Increased understanding by policy makers of the opportunities (and potential risks) that different climate change actions offer for building sustainable livelihoods, building prosperity and reducing inequality;
2. Changes in climate and wider development policy towards climate actions that maximise co-benefits with overcoming poverty and inequality; iii) Use by actors in policy, practice, climate and broader development financing of portfolios of interventions from TSITICA’s structured catalogue of climate actions and evaluation criteria;
3. New climate interventions implemented in ways that draw on learnings from TSITICA’s case studies to avoid negative outcomes and maximise SDG co-benefits;
4. Uptake of coupled micro-macro-economic-energy models to support integrated development planning;
5. Ultimately, improved livelihoods and equitable benefits from climate interventions for the most vulnerable and poor, contributing to the Agenda 2030 ambition of leaving no one behind.

Through the project we also aim to build the foundations of an inclusive, interdisciplinary, pan-African network of researchers and practitioners on climate change and inequality.

Partners

• ARUA-CD, the ARUA COE on Climate and Development, hosted by the University of Cape Town, with regional nodes at the Universities of Ghana and Nairobi.
• ACEIR, the African Centre of Excellence on Inequalities research, similarly hosted by hosted by the University of Cape Town, with nodes at the Universities of Ghana and Nairobi.
• The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Universities of East Anglia and Manchester, who bring extensive experience on sustainable development, livelihoods, disaster risk, forced migration, climate adaptation and environmental justice.
• The International Inequalities Institute at LSE, one of the world’s leading interdisciplinary centres exploring the challenge of inequalities, who have major global expertise on income and wealth inequalities.
• Grantham Research Institute on the Environment and Climate Change at LSE, which brings leading expertise in climate governance and policy analysis.
• The Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research, University of Bristol, a leading international centre working in several African contexts on the measurement of multidimensional poverty and inequality across space and time, and the use of this evidence for policy formulation and assessment.